There is no explanation for the following actions by a police officer, other than sadistic brutality. How different are his actions than the Roman Gladiator who brandished the sword to the blood-thirsty crowd prior to plunging it into his defeated opponent? [Problem: the crowd was not blood-thirsty or in agreement] How different is his act then the bull fighter who waves his sword to the crowd before finishing-off the innocent bull? And, how different are his actions than those of the racist thugs who relished beating young black people at restaurant counters in the U.S. South during the early 1960s? Ultimately, his actions are no different from the southern crowds who probably cheered as racist murderers threw ropes over three limbs while others drug a horrified black person (men and women) up for the lynching show.

VideoOn Friday, a group of University of California, Davis students, part of the Occupy Wall Street movement on campus, became the latest victims of alleged police brutality to be captured on video. The videos show the students seated on the ground as a UC Davis police officer brandishes a red canister of pepper spray, showing it off for the crowd before dousing the seated students in a heavy, thick mist.

After centuries of seeing the good that comes from protest and civil disobedience, I find it unfathomable that the authorities still feel behavior such as the video spraying of peaceful protesters is effective.Looks like Tahrir Square to me!University of California-Davis official have indicated they will undertake a review of the spraying. The University Chancellor Linda Katehi, said she feels the video of the pepper spraying ,”is chilling”. It is being reported some university faculty are demanding Katehi resign as Chancellor for authorizing the actions against the peaceful protesters.

Thank you for inviting me here today. It’s an honor for me to join in this protest. I have come here in an attempt to feel less lonely and to remind you all that your protest is not undermining the law, but rather it is to defend it. Your protest is not undermining the economy, but rather it is to protect it. Have you ever asked yourselves which economy is not affected by the crisis? The answer is the criminal economy. The GDP of the world’s criminal organizations has reached 1 trillion dollars. This sum is greater than the budgets of 150 member countries of the UN. 10 % of the world’s GDP ends up in the pockets of criminal organizations. The world's mafias are actually making money because they have huge amounts of capital to invest and launder when no one else has money, and, therefore, they trounce the legal competition. Here at Zuccotti Park, you are asking for new rules, and, as a result, you are ensuring that organized crime does not take over the legal economy and, above all, that these organizations do not impose their codes of conduct on us. Mafias enforce a reverse meritocracy: cruelty defeats righteousness; cunning defeats intelligence; favoritism defeats talent; appearance defeats reality; l’omertà, that is their Code of Silence, defeats voice. And they justify themselves by saying that they are not dishonest; rather the world is dishonest. Whoever does not follow this Code is bound to be overcome. Here you are saying, “Hey, it just doesn’t work like this, Sir!” You are the building blocks of a new humanism. The economic crisis seems to be the only hot topic of discussion right now. But this crisis is not an earthquake. It is not a hurricane. It is not an unforeseeable and unpredictable natural disaster. This crisis was created by decades of wicked management, by believing, not in development, but only in the possibility of getting rich, by considering every rule to be a dead weight to growth and every redistribution of wealth to be a waste. Doing this, they created more and more insecurity, and the fear of losing your jobs, the fear of not being able to achieve your goals, of not being able to imagine your future, grew up on top of this insecurity. When will your fellow citizens, who are not here today, understand that all of this concerns their lives as well, their retirements, their social security, the schools for their children? Will they realize this only when Russian cartels succeed in buying half of Manhattan through their ties with American companies? Mafias are not only gangsters and killers. Through narcotrafficking, racketeering, loan sharking and counterfeiting, mafias produce a cash flow that they then reinvest in the legal economy. If narcotrafficking were eliminated, the US economy would suffer losses of between 19 and 20% while Mexico’s economy would experience a crash of 63%. Never forget to look for what might be hidden behind corporate names and understand what really parola bannata their balance sheets! Criminal organizations have cash, which is exactly what today’s businesses are short on. Criminal organizations are infiltrating banks more easily because the banks have lowered their defenses. When I was growing up in Italy and we used to talk about the “American Dream,” we imagined a land where talent and hard work were enough for finding one’s place in the world, without the help of politicians, family members or anyone else. This was the “American Dream,” and now this is no longer so. In your protest, look at Italy because what is happening there also has to do with you. If Italy collapses, Europe collapses, and if Europe collapses, the US is no longer safe. For a long time, Berlusconi’s government has lied to both European institutions and to the voters. And now the country is in an unprecedented deadlock, a seemingly unsolvable crisis. By not having rewarded merit, by not having invested in talent, Italy now seems to be a country where self-realization is impossible. The only possibility is emigration. When looking at Italy, you may be looking at your future. But, in Italy, those who are enduring are also looking at you, and I hope they will know how to make a choice as you have done here. If I might say something to the American government, I would say that it can do more to protect its citizens. To the Republicans and the Tea Party, I wish to tell them that, with their insisting on the abolition of rules as the only solution, they are pushing the American economy toward disaster. However, there is an unexpected beauty in this crisis. In the past, our fear of choosing the wrong path forced us to make “seemingly” safe decisions: studying to become a lawyer was safer than studying to play trumpet in a Jazz band. Now, there are no more safe paths. The time has come to choose what you really want to do, devoting your entire self to it, winning your rights and not just making a claim for them. There is no such thing as a “better world.” But there is the possibility to make this world better! On one condition: that you truly want it!

Italian journalist, Roberto Saviano, comes out of hiding to explain how the Mafia is taking advantage of the economic crisis.Occupy Wall Street will welcome famed Italian journalist in hiding, Roberto Saviano, who will be discussing the profound correlation between the worsening of the economic crisis and the skyrocketing businesses of criminal organizations this coming Saturday afternoon. A dramatic example of this correlation is Italy, where the mafia is taking advantage of the country's unprecedented crisis. If new rules do not arise, Saviano explains, the mafias will determine our future.Roberto Saviano (born in Naples in 1979) is an Italian journalist and writer. His first book, Gomorrah, is a non-fiction exposé about the Neapolitan mafia. Published in 2006, Gomorrah soon became a bestseller and sold 10 million copies all around the world and has been translated in 54 countries. As a consequence of the book’s outstanding success and of its uncompromising attack on organized crime, Roberto Saviano received a number of serious death threats that obliged the Italian authorities to provide him with 24-hour police protection. Since 13th October 2006 he has lived in hiding and has to continuously change his residence for security reasons. The book has inspired the film Gomorrah, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival 2008 and was Italy's entry for the Academy Awards in 2009.